Amazon more than doubles max base pay to $350k • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon more than doubles max base pay to $350k

#231

Post by SNosTrAnDbLe » Mon, Feb 07, 2022, 6:53 PM UTC

radicaldreamer wrote: post #73

Someone1234 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always thought about MSFT as like working for the government: A somewhat boring, stable, 9-5, predictable workplace, but you're exchanging that for lower total compensation. But you can stay there for an actual career , family and all that. Whereas the more "fun" companies like Google/Facebook/Amazon will chew you up and spit you out, and you just have to make as much money as possible in your 20s/early 30s before…

You can stay at Google or Facebook forever, it's just a matter of finding yourself on the right teams with the right work-life balance. If you chase the most exciting projects at any company, it's a recipe for burn out because you'll be working a lot more than you would be on a "necessary, stable, boring" project/system.

I agree! I have not had the opportunity to work at Google or Facebook but at my current job I always take up forsaken projects as that usually has a lot of up potential and very less down potential. Everybody wants to work on the shining new tech but no one wants to work on that maintenance project which is actually is creating those new tech opportunities in the first place.

Re: Amazon more than doubles max base pay to $350k

#232

Post by CyanLite2 » Mon, Feb 07, 2022, 6:53 PM UTC

vanusa wrote: post #209

lhorie wrote: post #145

Judging from what an insider in the HR org told me, we're going to be hearing a lot of stories like this going forward. Apparently, Amazon scale is so large and their attrition rates are so bad that in some markets, every potentially qualified candidate has already applied and failed an interview, or previously worked at Amazon and quit. As the adage goes, necessity is the mother of invention and Amazon seems to be a…

As the adage goes, necessity is the mother of invention and Amazon seems to be at a point where it really needs to try everything under the sun to try to attract talent, given their extremely poor reputation. So rather than address the problems that are giving rise to this extremely poor reputation and commensurate attrition rates -- the only "fix" that Amazon can think of is to offer people more cash so that the net…

It's a start. Many other companies haven't gotten the weird idea that people like to be paid more money or they go elsewhere to find more money.

At the end of the day, it's a job. And jobs that pay the most usually recruits the best.

If they're looking at $350k base salary plus incentives, I may give them another look, especially if I can still do WFH.

Re: Amazon more than doubles max base pay to $350k

#233

Post by MuffinFlavored » Mon, Feb 07, 2022, 6:54 PM UTC

Will Amazon at any point start considering hiring more engineers from countries that command lesser salaries like Brazil/EU than they do US engineers?

Why do US engineers command such higher salaries?

Re: Amazon more than doubles max base pay to $350k

#234

Post by mrep » Mon, Feb 07, 2022, 6:55 PM UTC

coding123 wrote: post #84

f6v wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I briefly browsed Zillow in Seattle. It looks like a good 2-3 bd house is 700k+. And of course you need a car since public transport isn’t a thing there. Sending children to a good colleage is probably 50k+ a year just in tuition. I get a feeling money is different there.

It's comical though - the reason the pay is so high is because the housing prices are so high. The housing prices are so high because the pay is so high. It's a never ending cycle.

My target comp here in chicago is $250,000 for the level below senior software engineer and average home price here is $303,559 [0].

Pay is usually max(COL, local market rate). You don't need a super high COL if the local market is very competitive, but COL can raise the pay because you still need to convince people to move to your location and most people won't do that if it has an abnormally higher cost of living without a corresponding pay increase.

The reason house prices are high in Seattle is because geography limits how well they can sprawl to build new houses and lots of people don't like higher density housing.

[0]: https://www.zillow.com/chicago-il/home-values/

Re: Amazon more than doubles max base pay to $350k

#235

Post by mciancia » Mon, Feb 07, 2022, 6:55 PM UTC

lbriner wrote: post #80

_trackno5 wrote: post #65

Finally Amazon is realising their trash comp won't get them any hires in the current market. They were not even close to being competitive with other FAANG before. Couple that with the bad culture and I'm sure they were feeling the pressure to get new hires.

Trash comp? You might be talking about FAANG companies but very few Devs (maybe London) in the UK would get close to $160K, let alone $350K. They might want to attract talent but I suspect there are diminishing returns after a while, you only have to look at Amazon music App, Amazon web site, GMail and the Netflix app on my smart TV to realise they are not releasing good stuff all the time.

Don't worry, it's not like Amazon is paying like that in the UK ;] US market is kinda special thanks to high concentration of tech companies in SV behind great wall made of Visas/greencard lotteries

Re: Amazon more than doubles max base pay to $350k

#236

Post by ndstephens » Mon, Feb 07, 2022, 6:57 PM UTC

nebula8804 wrote: post #220

yanslookup wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't match my experience. I guess it depends on the role but for engineers it's well known Amazon has been throwing large sign on bonuses to close the vesting gap for years. For instance I received an offer that was 160 base, 325 cash bonus and 5% of my RSUs for my first year, putting my TC at ~510k. Second year was a slightly smaller bonus, and 15% of my RSUs. Is it possible that when folks were voluntarily…

>For instance I received an offer that was 160 base, 325 cash bonus and 5% of my RSUs for my first year, putting my TC at ~510k. Second year was a slightly smaller bonus, and 15% of my RSUs. Jeebus man. What is it that you FAANG developers do that is so much more complex than what regular developers do? For reference: I do Angular and Python development. Is there like some open source project or code samples that giv…

"I would invest half of it in low risk mutual funds and then take the other half over to my friend Asadulah who works in securities."

reference didn't go unnoticed. nice one.

Re: Amazon more than doubles max base pay to $350k

#237

Post by inoop » Mon, Feb 07, 2022, 6:57 PM UTC

Phelinofist wrote: post #226

inoop wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm assuming that based on your username, you are an EU citizen? If so, apply for a job with any large US based company in one of their European offices. For example, Google in Zurich or Dublin, Amazon in London, etc. After one year, you qualify for what's called an L1B 'internal transfer' visa. You can then transfer to another team within the same company that's based in the US. In many cases the company will sponso…

> As long as you're not a citizen of either India or China, this should take 2-3 years Whats different with these two? Why does it take so long in general?

India and China go in a different bucket, and it often takes 6+ years for the exact same process. Sucks hard :|

Re: Amazon more than doubles max base pay to $350k

#238

Post by munificent » Mon, Feb 07, 2022, 6:57 PM UTC

bagels wrote: post #167

munificent wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I received an offer that was 160 base, 325 cash bonus and 5% of my RSUs for my first year, putting my TC at ~510k. I don't understand the appeal of cash signing bonuses. This just seems to me like another way of saying you got hired for a $485k annual salary while giving Amazon the freedom to cut your salary a year from now by up to ~67%. Why give your future self that risk instead of looking for a higher base sala…

Cash gives you the freedom to diversify. If you really wanted to be all in on Amazon, you could use the cash to buy shares. You get RSUs in the latter years to make up for the lack of cash bonus, which you can hold or sell. I don't see what downside there is?

I think you're comparing a cash bonus to a stock bonus, but my comparison was versus a base salary. Given the choice between base salary $X and cash signing bonus $Y or base salary $(X + Y), it seems like the latter is strictly better.

Re: Amazon more than doubles max base pay to $350k

#239

Post by abletonlive » Mon, Feb 07, 2022, 6:57 PM UTC

etempleton wrote: post #228

This is good news for tech workers, but the income disparity between Amazon tech workers and Amazon warehouse/delivery workers is absolutely obscene. Understandably, skilled vs unskilled labor, and supply and demand, and all that, but as Jon Stewart recently recounted telling Jeff Bezos at a dinner party, “sounds like a recipe for a revolution.”

not only skilled vs unskilled labor.

but an engineer can produce a system which generates millions of revenue a day. a warehouse worker, cannot scale this way.

Re: Amazon more than doubles max base pay to $350k

#240

Post by omegaworks » Mon, Feb 07, 2022, 6:57 PM UTC

throwawayboise wrote: post #227

ramesh31 wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that's how labor markets work.

At some point, no amount of money is worth it. I can hardly imagine earning $350k a year. I've never earned a third of that anually. What I can imagine is a job that places such a demand on my time and attention that I don't have time for a life outside of it.

Exactly. No amount of money can buy you time. You are committing to a significant quality of life deterioration during the period you are employed at Amazon.